Tourism boost

Expect to hear more Brummie accents in East Lindsey this summer after a £20,000 advertising campaign for the district in the West Midlands.

The district council has spent £20,000 on promoting the district - both the coast  and inland towns - in newspapers such as the Birmingham Post and Coventry Telegraph.

Not only that but the backs of buses in Walsall, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton have been  adorned with posters promoting Skegness, Mablethorpe and the Lincolnshire Wolds.

ELDC has also allocated  a smaller marketing budget  to promotional activity  in cities such as Derby, Leicester and Nottingham, but it feels there is more growth potential in the West Midlands.

According to the authority’s tourism supremo, Alison Macdonald, who has not looked back since moving to Manby from Bristol 14 years ago, there is “anecdotal evidence” from accommodation providers of more inquiries from the Birmingham area.

She went on to highlight other initiatives including  a social media drive to attract more people in the 18-30 age group to the district and a  redesign for the  VisitEastLincolnshire website in 2015.

Advertising has also been placed in national Press - both tabloids and broadsheets.

“In a competitive industry, it is essential that we stand  out from the crowd,” she insisted. “We need to be really savvy.”

According to Ms Macdonald there have  been preliminary discussions with neighbouring  councils, such as West Lindsey, Boston Borough and North East Lincolnshire, about mutual promotion of tourism, but it is too early to say whether these will prove fruitful.

The leader of ELDC, Coun Doreen Stephenson, who has always been a champion of tourism added: “I have never been more confident of exciting times ahead.”